first lager attempt - still flat

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superjunior

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made my first lager a while back, a moose head clone for a buddy and its still mostly flat. we cracked one open the other day and it tastes pretty good but way undercarbed. its been in the fridge over six weeks now and not sure what to do at this point. should I bring them up to room temp for a while?
 
id say put them somewhere warmer for 2 weeks and then back in the fridge. i bet you that it was too cold for the yeast to carb up.

did you do a primary then secondary then bottle? or did you use the bottle as the secondary (lagering) phase?
 
It'll never carb up in the fridge! Put them somewhere about 70 degrees and wait a few weeks. They should carb up then. I'd take them out of the fridge, and turn them end over end gently to resuspend any yeast that fell out due to the cold temperatures, and wait 3-4 weeks. Then try one!
 
id say put them somewhere warmer for 2 weeks and then back in the fridge. i bet you that it was too cold for the yeast to carb up.

did you do a primary then secondary then bottle? or did you use the bottle as the secondary (lagering) phase?

I'd say this is the problem if indeed he had them in the fridge to carb up.
When bottle conditionbing my lagers, I keep them warm for 2 weeks before putting them somewhere colder for lagering. This gives the yeast time to quickly carb up the beer before slowing down at lager time.
 
To the OP for future reference, if you lagered your beer for an extended period of time you might want to consider adding some dry yeast to your bottling bucket. Also, despite the fact that it makes sense for whatever yeast are left in suspension to work at fermentation (i.e. refrigerator) temperatures (provided you used a lager yeast strain), as others have said bumping the temp to around 70 for carbonating purposes (three weeks is the rule of thumb) won't have a downside but will help ensure you get the carbonation levels you are seeking.

As Yooper suggested, you should warm the beer up, get the yeast re-suspended if you can, and leave it at room temperature for a few more weeks.
 
A moosehead clone. Wicked. We used to drink a beer called Moosehead when we were in college. Must be a different product though, no one would ever clone it.

I kid.
 
cool. I'll take em out of the fridge and warm them up for a few weeks. thanks for all the help guys and gals :mug:
 
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